Only the sheet you pick is converted
Parquet is a single table. A workbook with several sheets needs one conversion per sheet, and the results stay separate files.
Convert Excel to Parquet
Spreadsheets are where analysis starts and where it stops scaling. Converting a workbook to Parquet gives you the same data in a form DuckDB, Spark and pandas can scan in milliseconds — with the types Excel already knew about carried across.
- Runs in your browser
- No signup
- No upload
- Free
ExcelParquet
Runs on your deviceCSV
Options
Reading Excel
Auto-detect reads the first rows and picks the separator that splits them consistently.
Turn off when the file starts straight into data. Columns are then named column_1, column_2, and so on.
Turns "42" into a number and "true" into a boolean. Values with leading zeros stay text so IDs and zip codes survive.
Which worksheet to convert. Filled in once the workbook is read.
Dotted path to the array of records, such as data.items. Leave empty to use the whole document.
Turns {"user":{"id":7}} into a user.id column. Arrays are kept as JSON text.
Pick the encoding the file was written in. Wrong encoding shows up as garbled accents.
Comma-separated words that should become null instead of text.
Writing Parquet
Snappy is the default across Spark, DuckDB and pandas. Gzip is smaller but slower to read.
Turns a user.id column back into {"user":{"id":7}}.
Excel needs a byte order mark to open UTF-8 files with accents correctly.
Rows per row group. Larger groups compress better; smaller groups let readers skip more.
Converting…
Ad slot ·
conversion-preroll
This short ad is what keeps the converter free.
Parquet is unreadable in a text editor. That is by design.Check your new Parquet file with ParquetReader — opens Parquet files directly.What happens
How this converter handles Excel to Parquet
- Unzips the workbook and lists the sheets so you can pick the one holding the data.
- Reads typed cell values, so Excel dates arrive as timestamps rather than serial numbers.
- Uses the header row for column names, deduplicating any repeats.
- Writes a compressed, typed Parquet file.
Format differences
Excel vs Parquet
Spreadsheet workbooks with sheets, formatting and cell types. Typed, compressed, columnar storage built for analytical scans.
| Excel | Parquet | |
|---|---|---|
| Type information | Per cell — text, number, date, boolean | Full — ints, floats, booleans, timestamps, decimals |
| Structure | Sheets of rows and columns | Columnar, with nested type support |
| Compression | Zipped XML | Built in (Snappy, Gzip, Zstd) |
| Typical file size | Smaller than CSV, larger than Parquet | Typically 5–15% of the CSV |
| Schema | None beyond the header row | Stored in the file footer |
| Human-readable | Only in a spreadsheet app | No — binary |
| Tool support | Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice | Spark, DuckDB, pandas, BigQuery, Athena |
Worth knowing
What to watch out for
Merged cells leave gaps
A merged block contributes its value to the top-left cell only; the rest arrive as nulls. Unmerge before converting if the layout matters.
Spreadsheet layout is not tabular data
Title rows, blank spacer rows and notes beneath the table all become rows in the output. Trim the sheet to just the table first for a clean result.
When you need this
Common reasons to convert Excel to Parquet
Getting a manual dataset into a data stack
Finance and ops maintain data in Excel. Parquet is how it joins everything else.
Freezing a snapshot
A Parquet file preserves types and cannot be accidentally edited the way a live spreadsheet can.
Shrinking a heavy workbook
A large .xlsx converted to Parquet is typically a fraction of the size and vastly faster to query.
FAQ
Excel to Parquet questions
Is my workbook uploaded?
No. The conversion runs in your browser using WebAssembly and JavaScript. The file is read from your disk into a Web Worker, converted in memory, and handed back as a download. It is never sent to a server, so there is nothing for us to store, log or leak.
Are Excel dates handled correctly?
Yes. Excel stores dates as serial numbers with a format applied; they are read as real dates rather than as the underlying number, so you do not end up with a column of five-digit integers.
Can I convert several sheets at once?
Not into one file — Parquet holds a single table. Convert each sheet separately, then union them in your query engine if the schemas match.
Is .xls supported?
No, only .xlsx and .xlsm. Re-save legacy .xls files as .xlsx first.
Which compression should I choose?
Snappy for anything you will query regularly, Gzip when you want the smallest possible file for archival.